Sounding Out the Host of Radio's 'In the Drink'

Restaurateur Joe Campanale Shares Wine Favorites on the Air

Joe Campanale is a nice guy. Not "nice' in the bland, nothing-else-can-be-said-about-him sort of way (after all, the Queens native, at age 29, has already opened four restaurants and hosts a radio show). He's nice in the way that he's loath to say anything about anything that isn't positive or good. (Except perhaps the wines of Franciacorta, but more on that later.)

For example, Mr. Campanale would much rather discuss the accomplishments of others, especially of the people he greatly admires, than this own. In fact, soon after we met for lunch at Mas (la Grillade), Mr. Campanale sent me a long list of the people who have impressed him over the years. The list included a number of sommeliers, winemakers—even journalists—many of whom have been guests on his show.

That show, "In the Drink," produced on Heritage Radio Network, is a fairly new enterprise for Mr. Campanale, who just celebrated his first year of Web broadcasting. He's been in the restaurant business many years longer, beginning with his first job at Union Square Café while he was still in college.

ENLARGE

Joe Campanale, left, during his 'In the Drink' radio program with guest Raj Vaidya, head sommelier of Daniel.
Ramsay de Give for The Wall Street Journal

Mr. Campanale was a European studies major at New York University; he was hoping to become a lawyer when he took a job in the Union Square Café kitchen. The experience "made me realize I didn't want to be in the kitchen," said Mr. Campanale. But it also made him fall in love with restaurant business. "It was a magical world to me," he said.

Mr. Campanale also became interested in wine. He said he attended Saturday tastings when he was not quite old enough to be legal. While he was in graduate school (he has a degree in food studies), he got a job in a wine shop. "I went into the store, bought a bottle and thought, 'This place is really special,'" Mr. Campanale said of Italian Wine Merchants, where he was later offered a job.

He worked for Italian Wine Merchants for a year, and it was one of many places where Mr. Campanale gained his knowledge—and passion—for the wines of Italy. Another was Italy itself; Mr. Campanale traveled there after he'd saved up enough money from his various jobs. He traveled all over the country from north to south, visiting wineries. It was an experience that helped him land a job as a sommelier at Babbo when he was only 23. But he held the job for only three months before he was called to help open dell'Anima restaurant with Executive Chef Gabe Thompson and August Cardona, the managing partner.

The next three restaurants followed fairly soon afterward: L'Artusi, Anfora and, most recently, L'Apico, which opened almost a year ago. Three of the four are situated in the West Village; L'Apico is across town, on First Street in the East Village. Each restaurant has a different menu and a different, all-Italian wine list (save for L'Apico, which also features a number of U.S. wines).

Mr. Campanale created a mission statement for each restaurant's list. For example, the dell'Anima wine list "celebrates the native grapes of Italy," said Mr. Campanale, while L'Artusi focuses on Italian wine regions, with each region being allotted its own page. The Anfora wine list is "much more producer-driven," said Mr. Campanale, while the L'Apico list is organized by style and includes a mix of Italian and domestic wines—mostly from California, but from other states (New York, New Mexico) as well.

Although the mission statements establish the tones of the lists and there are certain wines that Mr. Campanale likes to keep on the lists, each restaurant's assistant beverage director is given the freedom to choose as well. This leaves Mr. Campanale free to do other things, such as attend meetings, host weekly staff wine tastings and of course prepare for "In the Drink," his weekly, half-hour radio show.

"In the Drink" was a fortuitous accident of sorts; Mr. Campanale had appeared as a guest on another radio show (Michael Harlan Turkell's "The Food Seen") and so impressed the producers that they asked Mr. Campanale if he wanted to host his own show. "They must have been that desperate," said Mr. Campanale in his self-deprecating fashion.

Broadcast from Roberta's restaurant in Brooklyn, "In the Drink" covers "anything alcohol-related, although wine is dominant," said Mr. Campanale. Most of his guests are New Yorkers, though he does chat with an occasional sommelier or wine producer who might be passing through town. "Three out of five guests are people I know or people whom I admire from afar, and it's an excuse to talk to them," said Mr. Campanale, who said he does Web searches on each guest beforehand to "try to learn as much as I can about them."

He makes no money for his radio work (he noted that "not even my subway fare to Brooklyn is paid"), and he's not sure how many people actually listen to the show. ("I have a feeling it might be very small," said Mr. Campanale.) But he loves the process—and talking with people. "I think Mike Madrigale is really exciting and has a great radio voice," Mr. Campanale offered by way of example, naming the sommelier at Bar Boulud. Later, he named dozens more.

And about those wines of Franciacorta: After Mr. Campanale recited a long list of his favorite Italian wines, I got him to admit there are some wines he doesn't particularly love: the sparkling wines of Franciacorta. "The wines—made from nonnative varietals—are really overrated," he said. With Mr Campanale, that's as mean as it gets.

Corrections & Amplifications An earlier version of this article incorrectly said the "In the Drink" program was a hour in length.

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